Section 2 University Daily Kansan
Friday, October 8, 1971
5
Ross McGregor
... Studies unmounted specimen ...
KU Herbarium Recreates History of Plant World
By PHILIP WILDMAN
Kansan Staff Writer
A few days ago, a Lawrence woman needed some unusual models for a children's book she wrote. She was made to wear uncommon plants, and because the Kansas woman maintains a large private collection of dried and catalogued plants, and due to the special nature of her request,
She was able to choose from among 200,000 specimens, some of which date back 250 million years. The plants are housed at the University, "one of the four systematic scientific collections at the University," according to Ronald McGregor, professor of botany, director of the division of science and head of the collection.
"The herbarium is chiefly a collection of every kind of native plant we can find in the great deserts of North America. The area included goes as far south as Oklahoma, to Canada on the north, Missouri to the east and to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Mr. said preservation
McGregor said preservation and analysis of such plants is of practical value to many fields. life is nothing special for a
"It is nothing unusual for a drug company in New York to
write, and ask about plant growth. The more counts items are derived from these plants. Thus, the more that is known about them, the better,"
Janet Bare, associate curator of the herbarium, explained how the plants are obtained, preserved and catalogued.
"HOMER STEPHENS," a research associate in botany, author of *Traveling extensively*, he brings in about 15,000 specimens a year, helping to build what's probably the largest herbarium in the world.
But he isn't the only contributor. According to Mrs. Bare, many plan it as a normal exchange program that exists between various herbalists throughout the country and accounts for the fact that of the 200,000 specimens, about 30,000 are outside the Great Plains region.
"This trading allows for much more complete collections to be established than would otherwise have been. Geography involved in collecting the plants and in processing them," she said. Of the 15,000 plants planted in yearly, about one-third are permanent basis. In addition
"THE DRYING OF the plant takes place just after it is picked. The plant is cleaned and pressed between sheets of newsprint, which are then placed between corrugated cardboard," she said. The clean, pressured specimen is placed in a space between absorbent blotches.
interested students and faculty often contribute to the collection
"The oldest plants we have here that are preserved in this way are from 100 to 125 years old. They will last indefinitely, due to the use of heavy-weight paper in the hard process." Mrs. Bara said.
After being cleaned and dried, the plants are taken to the herbarium, where they are mounted.
DOLPH FRENCH, biological technician, is at the head of this process. He mounts the plants with plastic resin glue on folders and covers them in plastic mesh before meticulously by the Latin generic and then stored in file cabinets for handy reference. "This is a sample of the plant used here." Besides this essential section of the herbarium, there is an area that includes specimens existing in a field called paleobotany, the study of ancient plants. W. Baxter professor of botany.
THIS AREA concerns,
primarily, what. Baxter
described as coal balls. These are banks of limestone trapped in the Rockies from glaciers and the Carboniferous period, or about 250 million years ago.
Dolph French Prepares Plants for Pressing
Kansan Staff Photos by Eddie Wong
"We don't know why these balls are rounded, but can theorize that they were formed on beach rocks forth, thereby picking up plant debris and thus forming in a somewhat rounded shape," he said. The balls are obtained from the central United States, including Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky. Probably the best available is just southwest of
Pittsburg, according to Baxter, is mainly cataloguing the plants. Cool Age, but also has hopes of discovering the origin of the plant.
"The first appearance of the flowering plants to man is about 150 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous. In other times, but these plants are already highly developed. We are hoping to find their less than two millionths more interest Among the more interesting plants of the herbarium is the one found here.
(marijana.) *M.* McGregor noted that its use by man can be freed from the burden of where it was used for consumption by a cult known as *marijana*.
"they used it for ceremonial purposes," he said, and added that the importance of the important source of fiber and "in fact makes a good bird-seed vaccine."
McGregor said that the Cannabis Satva at the herbarium had been preserved with the herbium hardened to keep the insects from eating it.
Robert Baxter Examines Fossilized 'Coral Baul'
Janet Bare Holds Poisoned Marijannia Samples
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